Hello to all you folks!
First of all thanks a lot to everyone who took the time
to send in a message. I appreciate it.
To tell you my side of the story, in Italy we have two
main Professional Associations as such, plus a whole
bunch of general workers' unions that want a share
in the game.
We have ANPAC and UP (previously known as APPL)
that we call Associations, to distinguish them from
the proper workers unions (all sponsored by
political parties) which also and mainly represent
all workforces in the country, from ironworkers
to employees!!! In these unions pilots are only a
fraction of the total number of workers.
The two main professional associations, on the other
hand, represent all Italian pilots, from my company
to Police, Firefighters, small private and charter companies.
And there is the big problem: there are too many
workers unions (approx 6) and my airline 2400 pilots
(have guessed it yet?
are severely divided among
all these.
The end result is that my Company takes full advantage
of this: it deals mainly with the biggest association
(ANPAC) but plays along with all the others, putting one
against the other and creating major differences between
how fellow pilots are treated.
With some colleagues we have now started a new
association to represent only and exclusively the pilots
belonging to our airline. The goal will be reached when
the majority of my airline's pilots join us.
But the question is: have we simply created another
union for the Company happiness or is the "single union
for the single airline" idea the solution to our problems?
I would appreciate an idea of the percentage of pilots
that each major union in each airline represents. I believe
that the majority always sits with only one union and
that the association in return only represents pilots from
that one airline, but I need confirmation.
I apologise for the lenght of my post, but the problem is
a hard one to resolve and I am not sure we have the
right answers.
I thank you once again for being so kind to read me this
far and, if you wish, to post a reply.
Happy landings!!!
The Meerkat